We have talked a lot about the next-generation PCIe 5.0 graphics card auxiliary power supply standard, and the upcoming is a 16-pin (or 12+4 pin) interface/power cord, with a maximum power supply capacity of up to 600W.
ASUS, Cool Cold, MSI, GIGABYTE, etc. have announced or disclosed new power supplies that meet the PCIe 5.0 power supply standards, and GIGABYTE has disclosed a very critical point.
Gigabyte said that in order to support the next generation of PCIe 5.0 graphics cards, there is no traditional power supply with 16-pin output, and it must be equipped with a three-8-pin to 16-pin adapter cable. This is also the first time we have heard of this transfer method.
So the problem is, 8-pin power supply can only provide up to 150W power supply, three 8-pin total 450W, less than 600W, what's going on?
Originally, the 16-pin interface is actually composed of 12 power supply pins and 4 signal pins, all of which can only be powered by up to 600W, and if there are no 4 signal pins, the maximum is limited to 450W.
The three 8-pin transfers naturally do not have the new 4 signal pins, so the nominal 16 pins are actually 12 pins, which corresponds to exactly 450W.
The RTX 3090 Ti should be the first graphics card to be equipped with a 16-pin powered connector, but it has been postponed until an unknown time, and it is expected to be as early as early March.
It is said that the card encountered two levels of BIOS, hardware problems, the set voltage is not enough, need to redesign the PCB.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the 12-pin power supply interface equipped with the RTX 30 FE public version can be regarded as a simplified version of the 16-pin power supply interface, with a double 8-pin adapter, and the theoretical maximum power supply capacity is 300W.
RTX 3080 FE public version with 12-pin power supply interface